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Museum

Around the World and Back Again: Denison and Granville

(September 23 - December 11, 2005 )

<h4>Around the World and Back Again </h4> <p>The aim of this exhibition is to link the Denison University collections with the Granville Bicentennial celebration by displaying objects gathered by people associated with Denison University or the town of Granville. The focus of the exhibition will be upon textiles, which are easily transported and thus were collected extensively by the travelers. The textile collection at Denison is particularly impressive in two main areas - South American textiles from the Kuna culture of the San Blas Islands, Panama, and textiles from Burma. </p> <h4>Textiles of the Burma Hills </h4> <p>Denison University has a large collection of textiles from Burma, many of which were gathered by Baptist missionaries associated with the University, Granville, or the Fannie Doane home. When Denison decided to form an art collection in the 1960s, the missionaries enthusiastically participated by sending hundreds and hundreds of objects to the gallery. The missionaries primarily worked with the groups living in the mountainous regions of Burma, rather than with the lowland Buddhists who were hard to convert to Christianity. As a result, the Denison collection has many artifacts from the highland cultures of the Karen, Kachin, Chin, Lahu, Naga, Lisu, and Akha. This exhibition, a combination of Denison University and David and Barbara Fraser's collections, will use these traditional textiles as a window onto the minority cultures of the hill groups in Burma. To enhance an understanding of the textiles, their traditional use, how they were woven and how they have evolved over the past century, the exhibition will also include historic photographs and photographs taken during field research. Four ethnic clusters form the foci of the exhibition: the Kachin group of northern Burma; the Lahu/Lisu/Akha of the northeast; the Karen of the east; and the Naga/Chin of the west and northwest. The most distinctive textile of the Kachin group is a wrapped skirt complexly decorated with supplementary weft figures. Over the last 150 years skirt designs have become bolder and more ornate, a development that will be illustrated in a series backstrap-loom woven skirts. Over the same period the woman's blouse has become simpler, with a change from homemade to commercial materials. A Rawang blanket will illustrate another important and dramatic traditional textile from the northernmost of the Kachin groups. The Lahu, Lisu and Akha emphasize applique and embroidery in their traditional textiles. The exhibit would feature a bold Lahu woman's coat and shoulder bag, a Lisu woman's costume, and a well-documented set of Akha man's and woman's coats. The Karen textiles include women's bold, large tunics decorated with embroidery and Job's-tear seeds, tube skirts, and ornate hairbands, illustrating the wide range of patterns. In addition, the exhibition will include a remarkable funerary tunic and funerary shroud. The Naga and Chin are linguistically the most complicated of the hill peoples of Burma, reflecting the remoteness of the regions they occupy. The exhibition will include two traditional old Naga blankets, one of which is decorated with cowrie-shell human figures. The Chin will be represented by an example of the highest-status man's indigo blanket, a fine old silk skirt heavily decorated with figures, and a breast cloth.</p> <h4>Burmese Silks </h4> <p>The most highly prized fabric for clothing in Burma is a silk cloth named lun-taya acheik. Because of the complexity of the weave, it takes two people to weave an inch or two of the fabric per day. As a result, this type of textile has been woven only by professional weavers on traditional floor looms in small workshops. Designs for men feature zig-zag, cable and interlocking lappet motifs, while patterns for women combine undulating and interlocking cable patterns with floral and creeper elements. Acheik patterns are also enhanced by an imaginative choice of color. A bold palette of chemically dyed reds, purples, pinks greens and yellows has generally been preferred over pale pastel hues. Silver wrapped yarns were also widely employed in acheik weaving. Due to the generosity of missionaries to Burma, Denison University is fortunate to have several lun-taya acheik tube skirts and cloth fragments, some of which date from the mid 19th century. These will be on display with a traditional Southeast Asian loom on which the pieces would have been woven. </p> <h4>Kuna Molas from the San Blas Islands, Panama </h4> <p>The mola is a blouse worn by the women of the Kuna people, who live along the Atlantic coast of Panama and the associated islands. It is unclear when the Kuna began to wear molas, but it is assumed to have come after Christian insistence on modesty and the importation of textiles and tools with which to make the molas. Molas continue to be made and used today, although the tourist trade is now a significant part of the activity. Molas are made using a very complex technique called reverse applique. Layers of different colors of cotton cloth are stacked and stitched together. The design is cut through the layers. One of the interesting kinds of molas involves Christian images, which have evolved out of the Kuna tradition of storytelling. It was a natural extension to use the textile tradition to tell Bible stories. Denison University has an extensive and significant collection of Kuna molas, again the result of generous giving, and a selection of these will be on display.</p> <h4>Han Dynasty display </h4> <p>The gallery will also be displaying a small group of recently acquired Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) tomb pottery and some rubbings of Han images made by Denison graduate, Daniel S. Dye (class of 1907) during his time in China (1908-1949).</p> <h4>Opening times </h4> <p>The exhibition opens the evening of 23 September and runs through 11 December. The gallery is open from 1:00 - 4:00 pm daily. </p>

Karen (probably Sgaw) woman’s skirt-cloth, ni. Three-panel skirt, decorated with warp ikat, warp striping, supplementary weft, embroidery, tassels and seeds. 20th century, Burma, DU 2001.40